Comments on: Twenty years of fMRIhttp://mindhacks.com/2011/10/30/twenty-years-of-fmri/
Neuroscience and psychology news and views.Tue, 31 Mar 2015 14:32:08 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.com/By: Cosa registra la risonanza magnetica funzionale | PsycHomerhttp://mindhacks.com/2011/10/30/twenty-years-of-fmri/#comment-25022
Wed, 11 Jan 2012 05:02:46 +0000http://mindhacks.com/?p=20241#comment-25022[…] la ricerca e molto popolare per la performance di visualizzazione raggiunta. Nel 2011 ha compiuto venti anni dalla prima applicazione e, sebbene sia utilizzata per valutare la funzionalità di organi o […]
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Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:33:17 +0000http://mindhacks.com/?p=20241#comment-23228Just a tale: as a grad student in the mid 90’s I helped some folks at the U of Pittsburgh map the visual field inside an fMRI for several years. I was the rat inside the machine. They had trouble finding subjects, but for many reasons I didn’t mind the pain (the ring under my head) or the noise or the 3-4 hour ordeal. After about 3 years the lead researcher asked me what I was doing in there because my signals were so good. I had learned to meditate. They took me to a different lab for EEG study and found that I could get into an alpha state immediately and task there.

The condition that most led to this was a study design flaw, essentially. After a round of trials a message would appear: if you got them all right, then a green message would say “Great Job!”. If you got at least one wrong a red message would tell you how many you got wrong. I realized that one red message led to more red messages, so I shut my eyes at the end of a trial and ignored the messages. Then I just went further and further into my mind until I no longer could feel the wooden controller with buttons to push in my hand. I couldn’t have located my body at all. Very interesting.

Also interesting is that at some point, the physicist in charge took me aside and warned me to stop coming. Why? He didn’t know, but thought it best that I stop, after 100’s of hours – I couldn’t even tell you how many really. It’s my favorite excuse for bad behavior or thought! Though I must say that I still wonder what effects it may have had on me…